Beautiful to look at, beautiful to touch.

The collaboration opens up access to CLEAF’s extensive range of premium melamines, laminates, and matching edgings, nationwide. Comprising a stocked collection of over 100 attractive finishes in a variety of different tones, colours, and patterns, plus a ‘made to order’ option on thousands of additional combinations. these panels are now only available from James Latham’s 11 strategically-located timber & panel depots.

As Roberto Caspani, Managing Director at CLEAF says, “James Latham has consistently proven itself as a distribution partner that truly understands our materials, and the audiences we want to engage with. It has a widespread reach across the decorative surface markets and we look forward to building awareness of CLEAF with them, to increase our share of the market.”

Nick Widlinski, Panels Director at James Latham, says, “CLEAF is one of the most sophisticated and stylish décors brands on the market, which keeps on raising the bar in terms of ‘premium’ within the category. As the appetite for luxury interiors continues to grow for residential and commercial design space, we see CLEAF as an aspirational product that will offer the right balance of form and function, achieving almost any look whilst delivering a robust, easy-to-maintain finish.”

The best of the best

Similar to James Latham, CLEAF has a long track record of delivering best-in-class products and services.

Founded in 1975 in Lissone, Italy, by the Caspani Family, which still owns and operates the business, CLEAF has become respected and celebrated by interior designers for the uncompromisingly high-quality of its surfaces. 

What sets it apart is that its products are manufactured using specialised processing techniques which create deeply textured surfaces, making them nearly indistinguishable from the natural materials they mimic, such as woodgrains, natural stone, burnished metals, fluted marble and even plush, full grain leathers.

In addition, the proprietary detailing technique also makes each panel incredibly robust, with the decorative layers tightly bonded to a stable and sustainable chipboard substrate. This means it’s suitable for almost any built-in or free-standing furniture application, whether an ultra-cool bar in a five-star hotel or the sophisticated built-in wardrobes for a palatial penthouse.

The pursuit of perfection

Yet CLEAF never rests on its laurels, always striving for perfection.

Evocative of its roots in the European ‘Capital of Design’, it’s also a brand that’s always ahead of the zeitgeist, regularly consulting with some of the world’s leading designers to develop ‘the next big thing’ for high-end interior décors specification.

As Widlinski concludes, “It’s this pioneering spirit, shared by James Latham, that makes this a perfect partnership. Like CLEAF, we’re well known for pushing the envelope and launching industry firsts which often become the norm. Like them, we’re constantly engaging with our audiences to offer them the very best, highest quality possible across everything we do. Both organisations benefit from this collaboration, reinforcing our positions as the premium proposition within our markets, only working with like-for-like businesses.”

CLEAF surfaces are now available exclusively through James Latham. A Clerkenwell showroom will also follow later in 2024, allowing visitors to witness the outstanding surfaces in person.

For more information on James Latham’s catalogue of CLEAF surfaces, visit: lathamtimber.co.uk/cleaf

About James Latham
James Latham is one of the UK’s largest independent distributors of timber, panels and decorative surfaces. It supplies products to a broad range of customers, from contractors and merchants, through to designers and makers.

With a history reaching back over 260 years, Lathams have always been innovators. The brand consistently pushes the boundaries of materials selection, from its origins in timber products, panels and doors, through to the modern day, where it sits as one of the sectors’ most recognised suppliers of cutting-edge materials technologies, including decorative laminates, veneers, thermoplastics and acrylics.

Its most recent innovation is a Carbon calculator that enables architects, designers, specifiers and material users to understand the carbon impact of products they select. Both carbon footprint and biogenic carbon content shown on key documentation such as quotations, delivery notes and invoices, meaning users can fully understand the carbon impact of the products they choose.

Its people are as important as our product ranges. Experienced industry professionals teamed with specialist product managers mean James Latham can offer solutions and advice in the most challenging of applications.

Operating from twelve branches throughout the UK and Ireland, James Latham works with construction professionals, designers, architects and more, enabling the most demanding designs and construction projects to become reality.

With this knowledge, experience and product range at our disposal, James Latham is the all-round answer to your construction and design needs.